The Maiuma spring festival at Antioch (2)

Text
The passage of Severus of Antioch probably refers to the spring festival of Aramaic origin, Maiuma.

Severus of Antioch, Homily 95:
But those who have gone up to Daphne in pagan fashion have had no regard for the truth, which is so terrible (and) on account of which everything moves and trembles. But in the dark moments of the night they even lit lamps of [wax] in the stadium and added incense, stealthily bringing about their own destruction; and it was certain strangers, take good note, who informed me of this while trembling and crying. Do you not see the nets of the Calumnator, and his hidden traps, which on the one hand have as a pretext the joy and pleasure at first sight and lead on the other hand to idolatry and the celebration of festivals in some ways criminal and harmful? And are you not ashamed, when we call ourselves Christians, we who were born on high for the purification which (comes) from the water and the Spirit and call ourselves children of God, to run equally to the solemnities of Satan, which we have renounced by divine baptism? For whenever you change your clothing and afterwards go up to the spactacle, dressed in a tiny linen tunic, which hides the arms but not the hands, waving about a wooden stick and with all skin shaved with a rasor, so to speak - look, is it not quite clear that you have made a procession and celebrated Olympian Zeus?

Source (list of abbreviations)
Severus of Antioch, Homily 95

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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